of dollars and ruined the public’s trust. Enron was once the seventh largest public company in the United States and Andersen LLP was the world’s largest and most respected business organizations. Enron’s stock prices soared to approximately $100 to less than $10 in 2001. How did these two big giants fall into oblivion and what could have been done to avoid the disaster of these companies? Enron Corporation was formed as the result of the July 1985 merger of Houston National Gas and InterNorth of
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Dennis Moberg, Wilkinson Professor of Management and Ethics, and Martin Calkins, S.J., assistant professor of management. Edited excerpts from their conversation appear below: Manuel Velasquez: What went wrong at Enron? In ethics, explanations tend to fall into three categories: personal, organizational, and systemic. Personal explanations look for the causes of evil in the character of the individuals who were involved. Did this happen, for example, because the people involved were vicious? Were they
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1. Explain the meaning of “creative accounting” and “earnings management”. Earnings management defines as the choice by a manager of accounting policies or real actions that affecting earnings, in order to achieve some specific reported earnings objective. Earnings management includes both accounting policy choice and real actions. There are two categories of accounting policies which are the choice of accounting policies per se and the discretionary accruals. One is the choice of accounting
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FROM GREAT TO GHASTLY: HOW TOXIC ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES POISON COMPANIES THE RISE AND FALL OF ENRON, WORLDCOM, HEALTHSOUTH, AND TYCO INTERNATIONAL David R. Lease, Norwich University Abstract This paper presents an analytical and comparative study of four recent corporate scandals involving organizations that had previously been recognized as both ethically and organizationally sound. Based on these case studies, the following issues are discussed: (1) The role of leader behavior and organizational/leadership
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and accounting issues. He avidly believed that the primary role of the auditor was to ensure that clients reported fully and honestly to the public, regardless of the consequences for those clients. Ironically, Arthur Andersen & Co.’s dramatic fall from eminence resulted from its association with a client known for aggressive and innovative uses of “accounting gimmicks” to window dress its financial statements. Enron Corporation was the second largest client of the firm and was involved in large
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------------------------------------------------- Top of Form The Rise and Fall of Enron | The rise and fall of Enron is an important, complex story. In its early days Enron did the right things for the right reason and garnered substantial credibility. Later successful operations were replaced with the illusion of successful operations. In the last phases Enron milked its credibility to sustain operations through loans. When its credibility with lenders crumbled the loan funds dried up and the
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final selection process, called voir dire.! The defense lawyers say they are deeply troubled by responses to jury questionnaires, which came back with mostly negative comments about Enron and the defendants. Many Houstonians hold a grudge against Enron's leadership for the company's collapse, which directly wiped out more than 4,000 jobs and retirement accounts and sent shock waves through the city's economy.! Edward J. Bronson, a jury consultant from California who was hired by the defense to study
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ring is currently on trial in New York, and has implicated some leading financial-industry figures. And it follows a series of fines paid by America’s biggest investment banks to settle charges of various securities violations. They are essentially "paper crimes" in which the perpetrator uses deceit to obtain money, property or some professional advantage. White collar crime encompasses a number of offenses including mail fraud,
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revenue. Enron pursued further growth by extending its natural gas business model to become a trader in electric power, coal, paper, pulp and water. By 2000, Enron has reached no. 7 on the Fortune 500 and claimed $101 billion in annual revenues. It had become a conglomerate that owned and traded all types of energy in financial markets. However among the success of Enron’s business strategy, were failed business attempts and unethical accounting approach to hide company’s debts. In 2001, Lay sold
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Nebraska pipeline company. Initially, Enron was merely involved in the distribution of gas, but it later became a market maker in facilitating the buying and selling of futures of natural gas, electricity, broadband, and other products. However, Enron’s continuous growth eventually came to an end as a complicated financial statement fraud and multiple scandals sent Enron through a downward spiral to bankruptcy. During the 1980s several major national energy corporations began lobbying Washington
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